Pacific Beach and Mission Beach

Pacific Beach& Mission Beach

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Pacific Beach

Bounded by La Jolla to the north, Mission Beach and Mission Bay to the south, Interstate 5 to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

While largely populated by young people, surfers, and college students, the population is becoming older, more professional, and more affluent due to rising property and rental costs.

"P.B.," as it is known as by local residents, is home to one of San Diego's larger nightlife scenes, with many of bars, eateries, and clothing stores.

Pacific Beach stretches for miles from the Mission Bay jetty to the cliffs of La Jolla.

The boardwalk, officially called Ocean Front Walk/Ocean Boulevard, is a pedestrian walkway that runs approximately 3.2 miles along the beach from the end of Law St. in the north down into Mission Beach, ending at the mouth of Mission Bay in the south.

There are many local shops, bars, and restaurants along the boardwalk, and it is typically crowded with pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, and shoppers. Also adjacent to the boardwalk is the Crystal Pier, a public pier and hotel at the west end of Garnet Avenue. The rented hotel cabanas are literally on the pier.

Streets

The streets in Pacific Beach were renamed several times before receiving their current designations in 1900. The primary north-south street running parallel to the beach is Mission Blvd., with the streets named after late 19th century federal officials, then incrementing in alphabetical order as they move further from the coast: Bayard, Cass, Dawes, Everts, Fanuel, Gresham, Haines, Ingraham, Jewell, Kendall, Lamont, Morrell, Noyes, Olney, and Pendleton. Mission Boulevard was formerly Allison Street, being the "A" street of the series.

The east-west streets are mostly named after precious stones. Starting at the north end of Mission Blvd. and heading south, the streets are:

Turquoise

Sapphire

Tourmaline

Opal

Loring

Wilbur

Beryl

Law

Chalcedony

Missouri

Diamond

Emerald

Felspar - an alternate spelling of "Feldspar" that has fallen out of use

Garnet - pronounced locally with the second syllable accented, /ɡɑrˈnɛt/, unlike the pronunciation of the stone.

Hornblend - spelled differently than the amphibole, Hornblende

Grand

Thomas

Reed

Oliver

Pacific Beach Drive

History

Pacific Beach was developed during the boom years of 1886-1888 by D. C. Reed, A. G. Gassen, Charles W. Pauley, R. A. Thomas, and O. S. Hubbell. It was Hubbell who "cleared away the grainfields, pitched a tent, mapped out the lots, hired an auctioneer and started to work".

To attract people, they built a Race Track and a San Diego College of Letters, neither of which survive today. A railway also connected Pacific Beach with downtown San Diego, and was later extended to La Jolla.

As with many California cities, the history of its development can be traced back to the completion of a cross-country railroad in the late 1880s. Lots in 1902 sold for between $350–700 for ocean-front property and by 1950, the population of Pacific Beach reached 30,000 and the average home sold for $12,000. Today, there is areas where homes can sell for millions.

During the 1960s, development continued to increase with the city’s investment in Mission Bay Park, including the developments of the Islandia, Vacation Village and Hilton Hotels. In 1964 Sea World opened, which is located only a few miles from Pacific Beach.

Today, Pacific Beach is home to a younger crowd, including college students, single professionals, and families. The restaurant and nightlife culture has grown extensively, with Garnet Avenue becoming the major hub for places to eat, drink, and shop, and includes a range of bars, restaurants, pubs, and coffee houses.

Education

Pacific Beach public schools are part of the San Diego Unified School District. They include Mission Bay Senior High School, Pacific Beach Middle School, and several elementary schools. Pacific Beach also serves as a central location for many of San Diego's universities, including University of California, San Diego, University of San Diego, San Diego State University, Point Loma Nazarene University, as well as others.

Parks

In addition to bordering the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay Park, Pacific Beach includes Kate Sessions Park and the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Rose Creek, which flows through Pacific Beach before emptying into Mission Bay, provides open space and a rich wetland area.

Media

Pacific Beach is serviced in print by the daily San Diego Union Tribune, the weekly Beach & Bay Press.

Bars and nightlife

Pacific Beach is one of the main centers of nightlife in San Diego. Garnet Ave. between Ingraham St. and Mission Blvd. is where many bars and restaurants are located. The nightlife in Pacific Beach caters towards a younger crowd than the nightlife in downtown San Diego

MISSION BEACH

Mission Beach is immediately south of Pacific Beach and is a community built on a sandbar between the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay. It is part of the city of San Diego.

In conversation with locals, Mission Beach is identified and known as "North" and "South Mission Beach".

Mission Beach spans nearly two miles of ocean front. It is bounded by the San Diego River estuary on the south, Mission Bay Park on the east, and the community of Pacific Beach on the north. A boardwalk runs along the beaches on both the ocean and bay sides of the community. The main artery through Mission Beach is Mission Boulevard. Again as mentioned before, the community is divided into South Mission, a peninsula, and North Mission. At the south end of the beach a jetty, with grass, parking and a walk, extends into the ocean.

Land

Many residential structures in Mission Beach were built in the 1930s and '40s as summer cottages and some date as early as the 1920s. The rare airplane bungalow on Manhattan Court was built in 1924.

Because of problems to work out with developing on sand, Mission Beach developed later than the neighboring communities of Ocean Beach to the south and Pacific Beach to the north. In 1914, encouraged by land sales in those next-door communities and a new wooden bridge linking Mission Beach with Ocean Beach, John D. Spreckels offered small lots for sale. As a result, Mission Beach is the most densely developed residential community in San Diego with a land use designation across the majority of its land area of 36 dwelling units per acre. It also has the smallest lots in the city, ranging from 1,250 square feet to 2,400 square feet.

Few have been consolidated to form larger lots. Many of the structures within the community have been redeveloped into two-story homes. The wooden bridge to Ocean Beach was closed to traffic in 1950 and demolished in 1951.

History

Attractions near Mission Beach include SeaWorld in Mission Bay Park and the historic amusement park Belmont Park in South Mission Beach. Belmont Park was originally built as the Mission Beach Amusement Center by John D. Spreckels in 1925 to stimulate real estate sales and to promote his electric railway.

Belmont Park now features the original wooden Giant Dipper Roller Coaster as well as newer rides such as the FlowRider at Wave House, Chaos, Vertical Plunge, Krazy Kars, Tilt-a-Whirl, Liberty Carousel, Crazy Submarine, The Beach Blaster, and The Chaos.

Designed by architect Frank Walter Stevenson, The Mission Beach Plunge in Belmont Park opened in May 1925 as the Natatorium. The 60-foot -by-175-foot swimming pool was at the time the largest salt-water pool in the world, holding 400,000 gallons. The Plunge building enclosing the pool was styled after the Spanish Renaissance architecture of San Diego's Balboa Park structures.

Celebrities who once swam at the Plunge include Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller. The roof of the building rolled open to make it both an indoor and outdoor pool.

The Mission Beach Plunge (now using fresh water) and the Giant Dipper are the only remaining attractions left from Spreckels' original park; the other structures were razed in the late 1980s.

Activities (Mission Beach)

Mission Beach offers opportunities to participate in sunbathing, horseshoes, surfing, bicycling, skateboarding, Frisbee tossing, and other outdoor activities. A local skating club, "Skate This!," performs for free on weekends, executing trick skating and dancing on both rollerblades and traditional skates. It is a well known, popular location for engaging in sports, including beach volleyball and basketball, with courts available for both.

There is a public recreation center on Santa Clara Avenue on the bay side of Mission Beach. At the south end of Belmont Park, Wave House Athletic Club is a full-service beachside fitness center, complete with cardio equipment, weights, fitness classes, aquatic classes in the Plunge, and beach Bootcamps.

Mission Beach includes Mariner's Point, the original site of the Over-the-line softball-on-the-beach tournament.

Many beachgoers are local college and university students, but both tourists and permanent residents of the beach and other areas are also frequent visitors to the beach. Weekly and monthly rentals are available during the summer months.

Bars and nightlife

Mission Beach has many well-known bars. Most bars in the neighborhood are relaxed, beach-style gathering places.

Some of the more popular places include The Sandbar Sports Grill, and The Beachcomber and The Pennant in South Mission, The Coaster Saloon and Wave House, a beachside bar-and-grill featuring an 8-foot tall barreling artificial wave called the Bruticus Maximus and a smaller FlowRider.